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Ad Hoc Studies

Hostile references by ISIS and Al-Qaeda to the FIFA World Cup games in Qatar

Official media channels of ISIS and Al-Qaeda show a hostile attitude towards the FIFA World Cup games Al-Naba, ISIS’s official weekly, called to act according to the recommendation of the Prophet of Islam Muhammad and to remove the polytheists, Jews, and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula. Al-Qaeda called on Muslims to boycott the event because it promotes obscenity and homosexuality in the Arabian Peninsula and warned Muslims not to watch it, attend it or promote it.
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Incident between Egyptian army forces and ISIS in the Suez Canal region

From the night of November 18, 2022, until the early morning hours of November 19, 2022, there were heavy exchanges of fire between Egyptian army forces and operatives of ISIS’s Sinai Province in the eastern part of the city of Al-Qantara, which is close to the Suez Canal. At least five soldierswere killed, and several others were wounded. It should be noted that the Suez Canal is a strategic region representing an international traffic artery of importance for world trade in general and for the Egyptian economy in particular.
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The Palestinian Authority and Fatah have adopted a policy of full solidarity with Palestinians killed while carrying out terrorist attacks against Israel or in confrontations with Israeli security forces

With the increase of terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria in recent months and the intensive counterterrorism activities of the Israeli security forces, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the PA have increased its glorification of the fatalities (primarily operatives of Fatah and the PA security forces) and adopted a policy of full solidarity with their families, including terrorists killed while attacking Israelis and in clashes with Israeli security forces. Senior PA and Fatah figures declare them heroes and have been strongly critical of Israel for killing them. Many of them, including PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh and Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary general of the PLO's Executive Committee and responsible for relations with Israel, customarily visit the mourning tents and offer their condolences to the terrorists' families. The PA and Fatah hold formal military-style funerals which are attended by operatives of the PA security forces and senior PA and Fatah figures; Their objective is apparently to gain the sympathy and support of the Palestinian people and to prove that neither the PA nor Fatah has abandoned the path of "resistance."
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The Pro-Iranian militias in Iraq – the current situation

The US invasion of Iraq in 2003 undermined the internal order in the country and brought about, among other things, the establishment of several pro-Iranian militias affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Qods Force. The militias were set up with the purpose of driving the US forces out of Iraq and establishing Iranian involvement in the country. Prominent among the militias are Asa’ib Ahl al-Haqq (“League of the Righteous”), Kata’ib Hezbollah (“Hezbollah Battalions”), Harakat al-Nujaba (“the Movement of the Noble Ones”), and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (“The Master of Martyrs Brigade”). The militias indeed operated in Iraq over the years against the US-led Global Coalition forces and contributed to the pullout of the forces from Iraq in late 2011. In 2014, they were integrated into the Popular Mobilization Forces (hereinafter: the PMF), which was intended to fight against ISIS, and since then they have become an integral part of the military establishment in Iraq and also integrated into Iraqi politics. The militias continue working to strengthen the Iranian involvement in Iraq and sever Iraq’s ties with the United States. They are also part of the Axis of Resistance, where they also operate outside Iraq, especially in Syria, including the border area with Israel. Following the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Qods Force, and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, the deputy chief of the PMF and commander of the pro-Iranian militia Kata’ib Hezbollah (Hezbollah Battalions), on January 3, 2020, in a targeted killing by the US, there have been changes in the activity of the Iraqi pro-Iranian militias. These changes included personal changes in the leadership, the establishment of new militias as façades of the existing ones in order to maintain a low profile while carrying out attacks, and the expansion of the militias’ involvement in internal Iraqi as well as regional and global issues, such as the struggle a
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ISIS’s attack on a Shiite shrine in Shiraz, Iran: analysis and possible implications

On October 26, 2022, an armed ISIS operative carried out a shooting attack in the Shiite Shah Cheragh shrine in the city of Shiraz, southern Iran. The attack took place during the protests sweeping Iran,. The Iranian president claimed that the riots had paved the road to the attack, and the IRGC commander declared that the Iranian regime would act strongly against ISIS and even escalate its activity against the protesters.
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“Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades” – a generic name for the armed squads of Palestinian terrorists currently active in Judea and Samaria.

During the last few months an increasing number of "brigades" have appeared in Judea and Samaria, military-terrorist networks calling themselves al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades (AAMB). Although the AAMB are usually affiliated with Fatah, today it is the generic name for armed squads of Palestinian terrorists, most of which operate independently and have neither a central leadership nor an established structural hierarchy. Fatah and the PA are ambivalent, publicly claiming to promote the so-called "unarmed popular resistance," while the AAMB publicly promote armed "resistance" [terrorist attacks] and a "military option”.
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